This invention relates generally to air treatment appliances such as air purifying devices and, more particularly, to an access apparatus for conveniently accessing a filtering mechanism and other components inside an air treatment appliance.
Air treatment appliances are known in the art. The appliances typically include air purifiers which have an air inlet for air to be drawn into the device, a fan for drawing in the air, a filtering mechanism to filter out undesirable material from the air drawn in, such as contaminants, dust particles and other debris, and an air outlet for expelling the filtered air. The devices typically also contain other associated components, such as electrical switches and electrical or electronic circuitry for controlling and monitoring the operation of the device. Over time, undesirable material filtered out by the filtering mechanism in such devices accumulates in the filtering mechanism, whereby the filtering mechanism gets loaded with undesirable material. Accordingly, the filtering mechanism in these devices must either be cleaned, or sometimes replaced, from time-to-time, in order to remove the accumulated undesirable material. If, however, the filtering mechanism is not cleaned or replaced when necessary, the performance of the device is detrimentally impacted and the quality of the air filtered by the device deteriorates. This can be harmful for a user, particularly for users with health problems who use the device for health reasons. Further, a loaded filtering mechanism puts an excess strain on the fan to draw in air, or the capacity of airflow can decrease. Therefore, it is important to clean or replace the filtering mechanism in an air purifying device as and when necessary, which requires knowing when the filtering mechanism inside the device needs cleaning or replacement.
Typically, an air purifying device has to be opened in order to inspect the filtering mechanism within it. The opening procedure for opening known devices, however, can be cumbersome and tedious, including restoring the device back to its proper closed operating position afterwards. Depending upon the difficulty of the task, users tend to procrastinate in performing timely inspections and/or cleanings of the filtering mechanism in such devices. This results in delayed cleaning or replacement of the filtering mechanism, which detrimentally impacts the performance of the device and deteriorates the quality of the air filtered by the device.
In order to prevent such problems, some users may tend to clean or replace the filtering mechanism in the devices more frequently than necessary, such as each time the device is opened to inspect the filtering mechanism inside. Others may tend to do so at fixed predetermined time intervals, irrespective of whether or not the mechanism needs cleaning or replacement. Although this helps maintain the performance of the device and the quality of air filtered by it, it results in an unnecessary waste of both time and money.
Known air purifying devices typically also include at least one moving part inside the device, which is usually a fan for drawing in air through the filtering mechanism and expelling it from the device in a predetermined direction. Such moving parts tend to accumulate dust and debris over time due to the high traffic of air that they are exposed to, which may decrease the efficiency of the overall device. Such condition, however, is not readily apparent to a user until having had a chance to visually inspect the interior of the device when the device is opened. Typically, however, as discussed above such devices may not be opened all that frequently depending upon the complexity of the opening procedure, whereby such undesirable condition may continue to exist undetected.
Some known devices have another drawback in that they may be opened and operated simultaneously, which creates a hazardous situation for the user and other people, children or pets in the vicinity of the device because of the presence of usually at least one moving part in the device. Other devices that provide a mechanism designed to prevent operation while the device is open are usually not failsafe as a user may manually override the mechanism or somehow relatively easily defeat the mechanism for preventing operation of the device while it is open, whereby a hazardous situation may be created. In other devices, the mechanism may be defeated unintentionally whereby the device remains operable even though it is not fully or properly closed, once again creating a hazardous situation.
Other appliances, particularly air treatment appliances such as air conditioners, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and the like, have similar constructions to those of air purifiers, and typically share at least some of the same drawbacks as discussed above.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved air purifying device or other appliance wherein a user may conveniently open the device to inspect or access the filtering mechanism and/or the moving parts within the device, which has a relatively failsafe mechanism to prevent operation of the device while the device is open or not properly closed. Accordingly, this invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.
An air purifying device or other air treatment appliance includes a body, an air inlet for permitting air to be drawn into the device, a fan for drawing the air into the device, possibly a filtering mechanism to filter out undesirable material from the air drawn into the device, and an air outlet for permitting the filtered air to be expelled from the device. At least a portion of the body is movable or separable from the main portion of the body. Two convenient access pads on the body allow the movable portion of the body to be released from the main portion of the body. A pair of switches positioned in the body exert a force on the movable portion of the body whereby it is moved relative to the main portion of the body when the access pads are actuated. The release of the movable portion of the body opens the pair of switches, whereby the device is rendered at least partially non-operational. The movable portion must be returned to its operable position with the main portion of the body whereby both of the pair of switches are closed to ensure that the device is closed properly for the device to be fully operational again.